12 



The scratching sheds are open in front, with a canvas which 

 can be let down^to keep the snow out. The yards are 150 feet 

 long, with a row of fruit trees in each, and are plowed and 

 sowed each year. At present there are three of these long 

 houses on the plant and more will be added as they are needed. 



THE MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION HOUSE. 



An important and in many ways desirable variation from 

 the ordinary scratching shed house is the main poultry build- 

 ing in use at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Bozeman, 

 Montana. "The building is 72 feet long and 14 feet wide with 

 a 4-foot passage in the rear. It is divided into pens 12 feet long 

 and 10 feet wide, and is set upon a foundation of stone 18 

 inches wide and two feet high. The slope of the roof is for the 

 main portion to the south, the ridge coming just above the pas- 

 sage way four feet from the rear wall. This slope of roof is of 

 great advantage since the sun rapidly melts the snow on the 

 southern incline, making it warmer and drier, while on the 

 other side the slope is so steep that the snow does not lodge 

 there. 



"The next most important feature is the double floor. The 

 exit from the pens is through the floor into the space under- 

 neath the building. This basement has a ground floor, and it 

 is two feet from the ground to the sills. In summer this makes 

 a fine, cool and shady place when doors shown in cut are down 

 and portholes open, while in winter with the doors raised the 

 low sun enables the sunlight to extend more than half of the 

 distance from front to rear, making an ideal place for dusting 

 and scratching. This feature adds greatly to the usefulness 

 of the building, since it so materially increases the floor space 

 without affecting the area of the roof." 



THE COLONY-COMMUNITY PLAN. 



The third method of keeping hens in large numbers is, so 

 far as I know, original with me, and may be called the colony- 

 community plan. The plan in brief is this: To keep the hens 

 in small detached houses built in streets and situated close to 

 one another, with yards running to the rear instead of the 

 front. 



It has always seemed to me a great mistake to run the 

 yards to the front of a hen house instead of to the rear. There 

 are innumerable occasions when the poultryman wishes to visit 

 a pen in the middle of a long house, and in order to do so he 

 must open and shut half a dozen doors to pass along an alley- 



